Special issue of History of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals: Regulating Reproduction in the History of Pharmaceuticals and Drugs.
Visiting Assistant Professor of History Kelly O'Donnell is co-editor of the issue and co-author of the introductory essay with Lauren Maclvor Thompson, assistant professor at Kennesaw State University.
Source: History of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals, Volume 65, Issue 2, Feb 2024
Description: In this special issue, "Regulating Reproduction in the History of Pharmaceuticals and Drugs," we have brought together scholars writing on the management of fertility and pregnancy from a range of time periods and disciplinary approaches. All involve the use of drugs, broadly conceived. Together these articles reveal the complexities of reproductive pharmaceutical history throughout time but also illustrate continuities. People's attempts to regulate their fertility with drugs--by preventing pregnancy, preventing miscarriage, or ending a pregnancy--reveal the persistence of alignments between health and technology that have been neglected in histories of science and medicine. Our authors investigate a range of issues that result from humanity's use of plants and chemicals to achieve their reproductive goals. Their studies give us new perspectives to consider in the history of pharmacy and pharmaceuticals and their relevance for today's debates.
History
